| The Mortality of Male Mirror-Gazing
Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard. “Stop!" cried the groaning old man at last, “Stop! I did not drag my father beyond this tree." — Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans (1925) A book marked by naked Oedipal conflict, a book stuffed with quotations from great writers, ought to have Stein's beauty stashed somewhere between the covers, and though I waited for it all the way through The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead, I came away disappointed. I wouldn't say the omission ruined the book for me (it deals in more pressing disappointments, like mortality and the alternative: old age), but I did feel a little cheated. I mean, if David Shields insists on making me watch while he buries his 97-year-old dad in “a shower of death data," couldn't he at least throw in my favorite line? An unusual miscellany—part memoir, part anatomy lesson, part grab bag of wise maxims—The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead is far more entertaining than its title suggests.
Sports Columnists
If you're interested in updates on world peace, feel free to click the Nation/World link. You'll find minimal traffic. 9: Spoke to Evander Holyfield the other day. In short, he's not close to a deal for another fight yet — and, yes, there is going to be another fight. And about those Internet rumors that have circulated for weeks about a Holyfield-Mike Tyson III (cover your eyes) … 8: "There's been talk of a possible big fight between Tyson and I," Holyfield said. "But it's not signed yet or anything like that. It would depend a lot on money. It's not like I said I want it. It's not like he's saying he wants it. Somebody's just kicking the idea around." To the curb, please. To the curb. 7: The Falcons will flip a coin this week to determine whether they pick third, fourth or fifth in the NFL draft.
DFLers advance health insurance plan
A bold plan to provide health insurance coverage for all Minnesotans through a government run program was advanced today by DFL legislators, who say they expect to wage a three or four year battle for such a system. The proposed Minnesota Health Plan was touted as the most effective way to transfer savings resulting from lower insurance overhead and other costs to provide coverage for an estimated 400,000 uninsured Minnesotans. The effort is being led largely by new House members, who say they are responding to numerous complaints about health insurance while campaigning in 2006. "Health care was either number one or number two as a primary concern," said Rep. David Bly, DFL-Northfield. The single-payer plan will compete with less dramatic proposals for health coverage reform during the upcoming legislative session.
Two murders and two life sentences won't alter one convict's ...
SAN ANTONIO—He was done signing autographs. Finished glad-handing fans. Complete with his first day of training camp as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. But, refreshingly, Wade Phillips was just getting started. As Phillips jogged into The Alamodome locker room tunnel last Wednesday afternoon, a man desperate for his attention fired a football that skidded, tumbled and bounced into the back of the coach's legs. An encore—or perhaps a fight—was inevitable. Phillips picked up the ball, tucked it under his arm and, after briefly pretending to jog toward the bowels of the stadium, returned to the field, signed some more and, just like that, created priceless goodwill. See, Bill Parcells, it ain't that damn hard. In four minutes the new coach produced more fan interaction than the former coach did in four years.
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